How do I remove it? No, I'll try to make do without a license plate spoiling the front end look. But I was wondering if I could put the license plate there anyway and keep it covered, removing it only if an officer asks me to... ;^)

All of a sudden within the last few days in our small town, I have seen 1 SSEi and 2 SLEs, all of which were light bronzemist like mine. This after going for ages without seeing another new body style Bonneville of any sort. Maybe things really are looking up. Awful quiet out there. Hopefully, that means everyone is busy enjoying their cars. I washed mine by hand this weekend for the first time in quite a while. I have come to realize that the touchless car washes sort of get your car clean but if you really want it done right, you have to do it yourself. If felt good to run my hands over her sleek curves. Of course, at my age, those will be the only sleek curves I get my hands on. The Chicago paper was full of GM concept cars at SEMA, a mumber of which were Pontiacs but none were Bonnevilles. Maybe things aren't looking up. Was reading some of the archived postings this weekend and have now got the bug to do a pulley change. Let's see me explain that one to my wife.

Kinda funny - we all mention the fact that we dont see a lot of our cars out there . . . and I like that idea in a way . .

BUT

I had one of my multiple sightings again . .

Travelling on a 4 lane highway (2 both ways) I see in my rear view another black SSEi coming up behind me. Wooho, I think - a convoy!

So, we manage to get side by side fr a minute , me on the left , him on the right. Then he falls back, and drops in behind me , so I think maybe he want to follow me and see where i go. Im thinking that my car and myself are quite handsome together, non-threatening, and he is hoping im local so we can chat.

As we approach a set of lights, he hits the left turn lane out beside me - as he is pulling up again (cause I slowed down to wave) out of the corner of my eye is another black Bonne - SLE , 2001 ? to my right. For a moment that is frozen in my mind - there we were - three abreast - all black - at the exact same intersection.

I know the feeling. Just last week, I was at a stoplight, side by side with another dark bronzemist SLE (therefore either a '00 or '01). The driver was an attractive number as well... but I digress. We exchanged smiles and I gave her a "thumbs up". When the light turned green, I let her in front of me (it was one of those merge to one lane after the light set-ups). I've seen her around before - she can't live all that far away from us.

Hey, guess what guys - I was at the local discount place last night buying Halloween candy and I spotted a display of 1/32 scale diecast cars. They had Chrysler 300's, 50's Caddies, a '66 GTO ... and a blue 1957 Bonneville. $2.49 (Can.)

I went for a three-hour pleasure drive on Sunday morning, because it was such a beautiful day (cool mornings are rare in Florida), and saw not a single Bonneville of any vintage. But I had fun tearing away from the impatient tailgaters on the rural two-lane highways. It has occurred to me that of the few current generation Bonnies I do see, they are almost always driven by men (includes all the rentals). I've got a wallpaper image on my laptop of a silver SSEi on a snaky mountain road with a blonde woman behind the wheel, but I never see that on the road!

Now that I have a week or so of driving with the larger front sway bar, I'll offer my observations. The car has a subtly better feel in transient situations, a feeling that the turn-in is better. To be honest, however, only a "car" person would notice the difference. My wife, for example, whose threshhold of detecting a problem begins about at the level of a wheel falling off, would never notice the difference. Saner does offer the urethane bushings and end link pieces and in my opinion, these would probably get you 80-90% of the handling improvement and has the added major advantage of being doable for even an amateur wrencher. This all got me to thinking that perhaps Pontiac shot themselves in the foot when they chose not to offer a handling package on the SE. To my recollection, every other GM car I've had I have ordered with the heavy duty suspension and always at a very nominal cost. This might have counteracted the car magazine's opinion of vague handling.

Good to hear you are still out there. I was thinking of you the other day when I asked the local Pontiac service manager ( who runs a Pro Street Nova) if GM made a limited slip differential for front wheel drive cars. He said tdhat they didn't and that traction control had replaced limited slip for normal driving purposes. I also was wondering if your transmission was still holding up to the extra horsepower and the strip runs? Just think if you had a Chrysler transmission, you could rebuild it after every run just like Top Fuil people do to their engines.

Ok all, here's a puzzle for you. My 2001 SSEi with 8500 miles has started to randomly beep at me. It comes from the rear of the car, not the dash area. I've had passengers try to pin down where it comes from, but it is too infrequent to find. It is a very faint beep, but definitely an electronic sound rather than a squeek from something rubbing together. At first I though that maybe someone had left a cell phone or something in the car and the battery was getting low, but it's been about three weeks now & still happening. I haven't had it in to the dealer yet, but I will have to do it soon or it will drive me crazy. Any guesses?

The door and warning chimes come through the stereo system on the Bose. The rear door speakers and pillar tweeters pick up these chimes. I know this as I added an 800 watt system to the Bose and theses chimes come out at 800 watts.... very unpleasant. Could be the system picking a stray, muted signal. Or, I had a high pitched tone like squeak coming from the read deck metal that was heat sensitive, took them a while to find that one. My SSEi is in the shop tonite. they gave me a new Intrepid for a loaner... not a bad car, not an SSEi. Sounds like the engine is mounted in the passenger compartment. Beat a Mustang GT stick over the week end. The driver followed me to the gas station to ask me about the big black sedan that blew hin away. I did tell him about the tweaks, probably should have let him thought it was stock.

I'll try the air pump test tomorrow and see if that's it. If the OnStar module is at the right rear, then that seems like the spot for the sound, and it's quiet enough that it could be behind the seat. Does the OnStar module back there have a beeper output? My wife thinks it is a mechanical squeek, but others don't. Very strange. I'll let you all know when (if) I find it.

My tranny situation is long and complicated. In summary, my stock transmission has handled all the extra power with NO problems at all, including 60,000 street miles and 200 quarter mile passes.

Truth be told, I have destroyed two transmissions in the Bonneville though... The first one started slipping when the right coolant tank in the radiator cracked and I got tranny fluid and engine coolant mixed. Then I installed a fully custom race ready transmission prototype - which I managed to explode in only three weeks.

After these two fiascos I returned to the original tranmission (and a custom made radiator 120% larger than stock), and have had no more problems.

Actually, my transmission isn't totally stock. I have the Thrasher-modified TransGo shift kit installed at the highest setting, along with an extra G.M. 2-3 accumulator spring in the 1-2 accumulator. And I have a Motorsports Performance competition tranmission pan with drain plug and a GTP transmission dipstick (for header clearance).

Speaking of transmissions, I am currently working on two related projects. First, I am trying to figure out how to adapt 3.69:1 final drive gears, which should be perfect for performance with our 4th gear overdrive. And second, I am almost ready to release a true limited slip differential for our cars.

Who says you need a gun or a bow to hunt deer. Driving back from Colorado I was in the beautiful state of Kansas and one ran out in front of me begging to be run over. So I obliged. No but seriously I'm lucky I wasn't hurt. The deer wasn't so lucky. I think it was a doe. I couldn't find it not that I tried real hard. I hit it going 75 mph and the damage it did to my car its a sure bet its a goner. I was lucky it didn't hit anything vital. Like the radiator or fan. The front left corner is caved in. I'll need a new hood, front bumper, front quarter, and a new drivers door. I drove home a thousand miles with it like that. I'd say the cars well built. BTW it handled beautifully through the Rockies. Matt

My condolences. Been there and done that about 10 years ago. I hit one head on in the dark and even had the air bag go off. The repair bill 10 years ago was nearly $5,000. When I filed the police report, they asked me if the deer had been killed and I said that I certainly hoped so. If Doug McKeown is still lurking, I'm sure he can swap stories with you.

I had a near-miss with a deer a week ago today - was only doing 55 mph (enough to do serious damage but a lot shorter stopping distance than 75) and the doe was just heading into the ditch on what appeared to be her way to cross the highway. I tooted my horn, she froze in the ditch and I drove on. Funny though, I noticed a minute or so later that there was nobody following me on the road any more. When I passed that spot the following morning, I could see no evidence of a collision though.

mfahey: we haven't heard from "the deerhunter" in a long time - I don't think he's posted since May or June. Have you any idea what he replaced his Bonnie with?